Sep 18 1962
From The Space Library
NASA's TIROS VI weather satellite was placed in orbit by three-stage Delta vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral at 4:45 PM EDT (apogee, 442 mi.; perigee, 425 mi.; period, 98.7 min.; inclination, ranging between 58.3° north and south latitude). Orbit was believed too low for satellite's 9,120 solar cells to be unduly damaged by artificial radiation zone created by U.S. high-altitude nuclear explosion in July. By mid afternoon, pictures taken by TIROS VI's two television cameras were being incorporated with ground data into conventional weather forecasts. Weather Bureau reported quality of the photographs was "as good, if not better than that of any taken by the five previous Tiros satellites." The launching marked the sixth straight success in Tiros program and the eleventh straight successful satellite launching by the Delta rocket.
MARINER II entered gravitational field of the sun; the Venus probe was 3,608,857 miles from earth. The velocity of MARINER II relative to the earth now stopped decreasing and began increasing due to the effect of the gravitational field of the sun.
House adopted conference report on Independent Offices Appropriations Bill, allowing 83,674,115,000 for NASA in FY 1963.
First photographs of Gemini two-man spacecraft mockup were released by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft Corp. Three-section capsule would be used to (rain pilots to maneuver in space, particularly to rendezvous and to dock with another orbiting space vehicle.
DOD announced award of $12.2 million contract to for systems engineering and technical advice in development of communications satellite systems.
Editorial in the New York Times said: "Since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a civilian agency, it might be wiser to make all the astronauts civilians so that no questions of inequality or discrimination arise among them and also so that. they might receive more adequate pay than is provided by the low military pay scales. . . .
"In permitting the astronauts to cash in on their exploits, the Kennedy Administration is following an unwise precedent set by the Eisenhower Administration.
"While the practice of profiting from memoirs of Government service is an old one, such memoirs arc normally written by persons who have already left Federal employment. . . .
"The government would be far wiser if it paid its astronauts a sufficiently generous salary so that it could in good conscience ask them to observe the same practices of discretion and modesty which have hitherto been considered normal for all other Government employees." Dr. Ivan A. Getting. President of Aerospace Corp., told National Rocket Club in Washington that the U.S. space program had been plagued from the beginning by an artificial "dichotomy" that assumed peaceful activities m space were "pure" and military activities were "evil." "We know, all the world knows, that we have no intention of exploiting space for reasons of aggression. But now the Russians are demonstrating to the world that their space exploits are straightforward demonstrations of raw military power. . . .
"We in the United States need to reaffirm our traditional position—but with pride instead of seeming shame—that our presently great military strength is the most potent force in the world and that it is working 24 hours a day to help keep the peace. . . .
"If our strength is to be maintained we must have the military tools that are best suited to help keep the peace . . . operational however and whenever and wherever necessary—in space, in the atmosphere, under the seas, or even underground.
"We need to restate the historic peacetime military role of sharing in exploring the frontiers . . now in space . . . and that this sharing be on a basis of both cooperation and also some healthy competition. .
"We must recognize that many practical space missions have both military and civilian uses; that the exploitation of space for these missions necessarily involves both the development and continuing operation of these systems, and that as a consequence, each should he evaluated on t he basis of how it can be realized most effectively from the standpoint of overall national benefit.
"It will take our best efforts in an overall unified plan. But to assure success there must be no dichotomy in space any more than has been in any other worthwhile national undertaking.”
Three fliers were credited with breaking two Soviet world records by flying their B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber to 85,360-ft. altitude with cargo of 11,023 lbs., Don announced. Fliers were: Maj. Fitzhugh L. Fulton (USAF), pilot; Charles R. Haines, civilian flight test engineer; and Capt. William R. Payne (USAF), navigator.
Dr. Fred P. Adler, Director of Space Systems Div. of Hughes Aircraft Co., told House subcommittee of Committee on Science and Astronautics that the U.S. should not make a "major investment" in the Telstar communications satellite system until the Syncom system was proven or disproven. Dr. Adler said Hughes' Syncom could perform better than AT&T's Telstar and at one third the cost.
September 18-20: First national conference on the problem of Technical Manpower in the Space Age was held in New York City by Institute of the Aerospace Sciences, at request and under auspices of Executive Office of President Kennedy.
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